1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates in general to communications systems and in particular to wireless communications systems which include paging devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Numerous companies are attempting to improve the manner in which people communication over wireless systems. The present invention addresses many deficiencies in the prior art systems.
The following discussion is specifically related to stored voice paging receivers and paging systems.
In stored voice paging receivers it is possible to receive voice messages which may be heard by a called party. In the prior art systems is shown a method in which voice messages may be stored at a paging center from a calling party and then the message may be transmitted to a paging receiver. These systems typically include pager ID control data along with any voice message for playback through a codec unit at the paging receiver. The codec converts the data received into an audio reproduction of the calling party's voice message that may be heard from a speaker or sound output device in the paging receiver.
Such devices are useful in that the called party may have a voice message delivered to them rather than having to call in to a message center or voice mail center.
However, in part, the popularity of such devices has been limited in that there is no means for preventing other people to whom messages are not intended from hearing voice messages of a personal or confidential nature if the message is replayed by the recipient in their presence.
It is difficult for the called party to ascertain the identity of the calling party prior to playing the message received to know who is calling prior to broadcasting the message in the presence of others in the nearby area. To review a stored message the user was required to press play and the voice message was annunciated from an integrated speaker in a communication device. This was impractical for a called party that was engaged in a meeting that wanted to discretely listen to an urgent message without having to leave or have other persons hear the message. In addition the previous stored voice paging receivers gave no visual indication of who was calling.
The previous stored voice paging receivers stored messages received based on the time the messages were received. This required that the messages had to be reviewed in the same order regardless of the possibility that an urgent message may not be heard until the very end of message review. This was very inconvenient if the message required a prompt reply from the called party. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,579 issued to Bennet et al. is described a method of fast forwarding through messages stored chronologically. This method, though useful, requires a user to sequentially listen to parts of all messages preceding a possible urgent message received.
In addition, in stored voice paging receivers there is no ability to sort through or organize voice messages except to listen to them sequentially. This can be inconvenient for the called communications as they may want to skip certain messages until later, but must listen to at least part of all of each message as the voice data cannot be displayed.
One particular problem with conventional paging systems using message center devices is the requirement that a caller must manually enter their call back telephone number. On such example of a manual entry system is disclosed fully in U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,969 issued to Levine et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,824 issued to Phillips, and also U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,107 issued to D'Amico et al. This can be cumbersome particularly if the calling party wishes to also leave a voice message or send some other message data such as a facsimile. In addition it is especially difficult for a calling party to enter an alphanumeric message during manual entry as a great majority of communications over the PSTN originate from devices with standard numeric keypads that generate DTMF signals. One invention which attempts to address the problem of alphanumeric entry by a telephone set is U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,721 issued to Hashimoto. However such an approach is still cumbersome to use and is time consuming for the calling party. As well, the longer it takes for a calling party to enter caller identifying information, the less time a message center at the called party location is available to accept other calls. The inventive concepts herein attempt to resolve these and other problems.